Cudahy: Translado 5: Semana 1‏ / July 28, 2010

Hola familia!
 
Guess what? I stayed! I am really happy about it, but I was super shocked. The maximum you can stay in one area is five transfers, and so this will be the big number five. I officially know this area better than the back of my hand, and everywhere I go I see a familiar face. I am excited to be able to just keep working hard without having to deal with any crazy transitions. Plus we have met some really incredible people that we are working with and are just getting out of a really hard trial of not seeing very much success or interest. That really is the hardest thing about the work- having that faith to keep finding the people that Heavenly Father has prepared. I'm still with Hermana Garcia. We are super good friends, which is good. We've been through a lot of crazy things together. mostly good things, but we've had our fair share of ups and downs. I love that we understand each other really well now, and we feel like we literally are sisters.
 
Its funny because we both were convinced that we were leaving because the Visitor's Center is opening this transfer, so we were decided to go out with a bang and we set up this really awesome activity for the branch this past Tuesday for a big family home evening, where we did "the iron rod" and had a rope go in a maze throughout the church and the people had to go through it blindfolded with other people trying to get them to let go. At the end we had everything set up really nice and pretty on the stage with the "tree of life" and a place to sit and write down how they felt and how they could apply it to their lives. It turned out really well and everyone loved it. Our ward mission leader announced at the end that we were probably leaving because the Visitor's Center was going to open, and so everyone was saying goodbye as we got the call that told us we were both staying. We were worried for a little bit that it meant they were going to change our call and we would miss out on the Visitor's Center and become full field sisters, but then we found out that they are just going to have us commute for all of the training and the opening, and then we will eventually come up to be Visitors Center sisters. I'm glad that I get to spend more time really working with the people and seeing them progress and having these kinds of experiences, even if it does mean being out in the heat.
 
This transfer our zone is starting a new goal to have the faith to baptize every week. It has been really challenging building that kind of faith. It has made me realize that so many times we read the scriptures and we think of them as if they're fairy tales or myths, and that those kind of miracles- like baptizing thousands- don't really happen today. I'm trying to build that kind of faith and keep exersizing it. I think no matter what experiences you had before or the miracles you have seen, you have to continue to work every single day to have that faith.
 
I'm e-mailing on a Wednesday because we had our temple P-day today. It felt so good to go to the temple and have that spiritual rejuvenation. We also went to see the Griffith Observatory up in Beverly Hills, which was really neat.
 
I'm running out of time, so I'll write again Monday. Take care!
 
Love,
Sister Dansie